I have watched a few YouTube installs. Humble mechanic, DAP. Auto Instruct out of Australia has a good step by step as does IE. The clips do look tricky not to break. Wondering whether I should buy the white ones ahead of time so that I’m not dead in the water if I happen to break one. I plan to remove the whole front clip, lights included.
The CSF top clip can be removed and bolted back in place. You can see them in the photos. Right now there is some wiggle at the top. It is not a snug fit To answer your question. The CSF aluminum “clip” is not very robust, neither does it possess spring tension to keep the top secured free of movement. I’m waiting to see what it is like when I fit everything into the radiator support/shroud. If I need to, I will insulate potential noise/vibration with weather stripping or vhb tape.
Thinking it may be a good idea to get a buddy to provide an extra pair of hands to put this back together. Especially if I try fitting the two coolers as one unit. Once I have the IC mounting lugs located in the radiator shroud. Add the fans and then bolt back into the front clip and start assembling.
Any tricky steps I should be aware of ahead of time?
You'll want to snug up that top connection somehow, because too much movement can break it (and the noise is annoying when the radio/stuff is off). I tried a wire first, but it kept coming undone or breaking. Eventually, due to space (it was already installed) I just used a can of fireproof foam (great stuff brand if you care) and sprayed the tiniest amount into it. That has been holding and reduced the slapping noise of the radiator to nothing. Since you've got it out already, I would use either fireproof fabric or some metal shims to snug it up now.
A helping pair of hands is probably one of the best things to have during this install. I had my wife helping once all the supports for the whole shroud assembly were off. It's essentially a floating thing attached to some water hoses once you remove the crash beam and the shroud supports. Since you're replacing both at the same time, you'll probably drain the water and can just unclip the hoses. This means you wouldn't have to balance the radiator and certain parts of what you remove. Unfortunately the AC lines don't allow for the most amount of movement, and you don't want to disconnect them due to the freon and need to recharge. You'll likely never get the condenser entirely out of the way, just pushed to the side. I used a floor jack to balance the whole assembly as I was assembling everything back into place, and I'd recommend you have a spare jack around, because the weight can get annoying on your helper if you're struggling with a few bolts.
As far as installing as one piece or two, it really doesn't matter. The intercooler is the base of the entire sandwich and everything clips into/onto it. The radiator would probably take about 2 hrs to replace and wouldn't require the same amount of disassembly as the intercooler. Doing it at the same time just saves you a bit of effort/time so it's a good time to do it. I would definitely get spare white clips, since it's a ton easier to just cut them than bend them out. I tried everything, even heating them up, and they never popped out easily, so I gave up and cut them out. I also broke one of the clips for the upper grill (not a big deal) and for one of the air guides. The grill I left alone, but the air guide I replaced.
I never found a set of instructions or a video that were truly complete, so I worked off of multiple instructions/videos to get a complete view, and even then some of the bolts were a bear. It wasn't horrible, but sometimes i just felt like a dunce until a moment of anagnorisis hit.